From Devotions to Doctrine: Breaking the ‘Pink Bible’ Stereotype and Diving into God’s Truth, PT 2

 

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. —2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)

In the first part of this series, I tackled the question, “Why do women avoid theology?” We walked through all the familiar excuses—“It’s only for men,” “it’s boring,” “it’s too hard,” and so on—and then we talked about why those excuses really don’t hold up.

Now, in this second part, I want to look at a harder question: Why do women embrace bad theology? Sadly, women are often the ones most easily swept up in unbiblical teaching. You don’t have to look any further than Eve in the Garden. All it took was the serpent whispering, “Did God really say…?” and suddenly doubt started growing. That same pattern is alive and well today.  

As I dug into this topic, I found four main reasons why women are especially vulnerable to bad theology—and what we can do about it.

1. Laziness

Let’s just say the quiet part out loud: sometimes we’re lazy. Laziness shows up when we neglect our spiritual responsibilities—regular time in Scripture, consistently gathering with other believers, and being under sound teaching. When those things fall by the wayside, we stop growing. And when we stop growing, we become easy targets for bad doctrine.

We're starving ourselves of solid biblical teaching, feasting on junk theology and wonder why we're not growing in spiritual maturity

A lot of women also assume they can just take whatever their pastor or favorite Bible teacher says as gospel truth and call it a day. But that becomes dangerous when the person they're following isn’t grounded in sound doctrine themselves. And when someone finally points out the problems? Oh boy—we get defensive real fast.

Honestly, I think part of that defensiveness comes from pride. None of us—men or women—like to admit we’ve been duped. Admitting we were wrong feels humiliating. But humility is necessary if we want to grow.

2. Spiritual Immaturity

This ties closely to laziness. When we only ever feed on the “milk” of the faith—surface-level devotionals, feel-good messages, or basic Christian catchphrases—we never grow strong enough to discern what’s true from what’s false.

Paul addresses this in Ephesians 4:13–14, reminding us that spiritual maturity keeps us from being “tossed to and fro” by every new doctrine that comes along.

God didn’t save us so we could stay spiritual infants forever. He expects us to grow—slowly, steadily, intentionally. Surrounding ourselves with trustworthy teachers is part of that. Diving into Scripture for ourselves is another.

3. Love of the World

When I say, “love of the world,” I’m not talking about wild living or partying until 2 AM. I’m talking about the everyday stuff that consumes our time and attention.

— The never-ending kids’ activities
— The binge-worthy shows
— The mindless scrolling
— The overscheduled calendar
— The “just one more episode” habit

None of these things are sinful in themselves. But when they consistently push out time with God, they become a problem.

And yes—I’m absolutely preaching to myself here. I’ve lost plenty of hours to social media, TV, and everything else life throws at me. But when all our time goes to earthly pursuits, we’re starving ourselves spiritually. And starved people will eat anything—even bad theology.

4. Following Emotion-Driven Teachers

Here’s the big one: women often gravitate toward teachers who stir their emotions rather than those who train their minds.  Women will embrace feel-good emotionalism over intellectualism any day.

Many women think theology is cold or academic. They want warmth, passion, and “feel-good” teaching. And while emotions do matter, they’re terrible anchors for truth.

This is why emotionally-charged, personality-driven teachers gain huge followings among women. They make us feel something. But that doesn’t mean what they teach is sound.

What we put into our minds eventually sinks into our hearts. The head feeds the heart. Always.

Think about when you first met your husband (if you’re married). You didn’t fall in love instantly—you got to know him. Day by day. Month by month. The more you learned, the more your love deepened.

It’s the same way with God.

So, when someone says, “I love God, but I don’t feel called to study theology,” I want to gently push back. R.C. Sproul famously said, “Every Christian is a theologian.” Why? Because theology is simply knowing God. And how can we love someone deeply if we barely know Him?

The deeper we go into God’s Word, the deeper our worship becomes.

Wrapping It Up

In the next part of this series, we’ll look at why women need theology—not just to avoid bad teaching, but to grow, thrive, and worship with depth and joy.

I hope these posts are encouraging you to carve out time each day to dive into God’s Word. Even small, steady steps add up.  And the more you learn about your Creator, the more you’ll find your heart drawn to Him.

If you’re not already digging deep, I pray this nudges you toward building that habit. It’s worth it.